Topic: Restoration of Star Wars Vehicles: completing AT-TEs with original parts

[Darth More]

Welcome to my thread! On this topic I show you how I restore incomplete or damaged Star Wars vehicles by Hasbro.

List of Contents:

Page 1:

- Republic Gunship: Missing Missles - Resin Cast
- AT-TE: Turret Missle - Resin Cast - Reply #2

- Removing stains and color scratches from your vehicles - Reply # 11
- Removing paint and acrylic colors from your vehicles - Reply # 11

Page 2:

- AT-TE (Restoration of all Missles) - Reply #15


Upcoming Projects for 2017:

- TCW Rebublic Fighter Tank
- TCW Corporate Alliance Tank Droid - Resin Cast Antenna
- TVC Y-Wing - Resin Cast (That's gonna be a tough one!)



Hi guys,

in 2014 I started working with resin. My big role model for this project is Clonehead! I have always been amazed by the quality of his custom resin parts! So a big thanks goes to Clint here! He made one BARC Trooper helmet for me a few years ago and it is brilliant!
With this helmet Christoph (FialaFernbrugg) made one of his legendary Clone Assassins for me. I will post a picture of his custom in my custom figure thread later on...

But since shipping from Kansas to Germany is more expensive than Clint's awesome resin parts themselves I decided to try it myself. So I invested a lot of money and time into this project.
The "custom resin part" project is actually the biggest one I ever started. As mentioned before over two years have passed since then. I had some projects in commission and am still working on one 1/6 scale project that still needs to be finished...

One of my other works in commision is this here: the Republic Gunship

Some friends asked me if I knew how to find replacements for their beloved vehicles and ships.
Back then I had some original parts from big lots from eBay, but of course not every part they needed. You probably know this problem. You buy a used item from eBay and the missles are missing. Your ship/vehicle is not complete! You probably got it cheaper for that exact reason.
And casting the missing parts needs quite some expensive materials and skills, but the result definitely pays off! Back in the days of childhood those parts were always the things that got lost first...

I know technology goes more and more in the direction of CAD/CAM systems and 3D printing, but for now I decided to go with casting resin parts. Maybe in 5-10 years I will also own a 3D printer (We all will!)

So a Republic Gunship from a friend of mine was missing one front missle and the one in the back. I made a silicon mold of the original one and poured resin into that mold.
I then painted the parts in grey (with acrylic Citadel Colors).





In the picture below you can see (from bottom up):
Original missle, casted resin missle, painted custom missles


Unfortunately, I didn't catch the exact shade of grey, but the grey fits both Gunships (SAGA/ROTS)

[Tamer]

Is that one of your parts? Looks great.

I would love to see how you did this! I will try to make you famous!

[Darth More]

Thanks Shawn! Yes, these parts are two of mine and you will see lots more!
I took quite some time (and money!) to get into this topic, but after some time of experiments and development I finally got where I am: great quality custom resin parts 

My second project (after many requests) were the missles of the AT-TE:





Now, I finally found the perfect color to paint the replacement parts for the AT-TE:

It's color 27003 "Polished Steel" by humbrol. It's an Enamel color, quite liquid, but still very opaque!


I still use brushes for all paintings. At the moment I am saving money for an Airbrush System thoguh.


I am quite contended with the result...looks like the original part. What do you think?

[Tamer]

Do you offer these for sale? They look great!

[Darth More]

Yes, I actually do offer them for sale! So if you need some parts to complete your vehicles and ships, just message me and I will see what I can do

[Tamer]

Yes, I actually do offer them for sale! So if you need some parts to complete your vehicles and ships, just message me and I will see what I can do

Well now that is great news, and thank you for the service!

[Darth More]

I am updating my first entries on this topic with additional pics and info right now.

Also make sure to visit my other tiopic on restoring Hasbro's Star Wars Action Figures:

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=10179.0


I got some more incomplete vehicles that I will restore this year. As mentioned in the list of contents these will be my upcoming projects:

I got this set with two vehicles and 4 figures for 24€ including shipping from eBay:
So I got them fairly cheap and can therefore use them to turn them into customs...



Fortunately I have another complete Republic Fighter Tank so that I can make molds of the original parts.



I can make resin parts as long as I have the original parts. But I have to make many molds to complete this TVC Y-Wing. New for me will be to work with clear epoxy to reproduce the canopy...





One tip right away: Color scratches like these can be washed off with a brush and soap or if the brush is not enough: A Magic Eraser! But be careful with these sponges, if you rub too hard the original color will disappear, too...these Magic Erasers are quite abrasive....

[Jaeger45]

These look really nice!  When you tackle the canopy, I'd be interested in seeing your mold.  I haven't tried to tackle a really thin part like this yet, and I need to cast a VC X-wing canopy

[tetsuoswrath]

These are great too! That's really a great idea too.

Is it feasible to use molding and casting to make an entire ship duplicate for yourself? :{O

[Tamer]

I am interested to see how this comes along!

[Darth More]

@ Jaeger45: Thanks mate! You will definitely see the mold and all the how-to! Lately I worked with very thin parts! I even made Cad Bane's hat in resin! I will make the Y-Wing canopy and I will try the X-Wing canopy, too!


@ tetsuoswrath: Cheers mate! Unfortunately it is not possible for me to mold and cast an entire vehicle like the Y-Wing with my possibilities...you could probably do that with a 3D-Printer though...


@ Tamer: I guess so, Shawn! Me too and I can't wait to show you more!

[Darth More]

Last week I started working on a new project...

Star Wars Episode I - TPM Naboo Flash Speeder from 1999

With this example I would like to show you how:

- you can get rid of color scratches and stains
- remove color from parts that have already painted with acrylic or oil-based paints

I got this Speeder twice. Both were pretty cheap since they were loose, used and one of them has already been painted before...

As you can see in the pictures below this one here had some stains and scratches:







Again, I cut a piece of a "Magic Eraser" by Mr Clean, wetted it with water and removed the scratches by softly rubbing across the stains. Make sure to not rub too hard. Otherwise the original paint will be removed too since these sponges are quite rough.
By the way: Do not use them on your car! It will leave further micro scratches. Don't ask why I know this...

You can buy those "magic erasers" in every store with household goods or order them online (e.g. on Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Clean-Magic-Eraser-Original/dp/B0071SCSO0/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1486846713&sr=8-3&keywords=magic+eraser




Interesting to note is the fact that the packaging says: "Made in Germany" and "Packed in the USA". I have never seen a print like this before. In fact these Magic Erasers by Mr Clean are not available here in Germany. This might be due to European restrictions. As far as I know they contain chlorine elements, but I know exactly why they are not sold here.
You can get them quite cheap for what you can achieve with them! I cleaned my host dad's entire boat with them before he sold it! It did a lot of magic on it! What you can get here though are unbranded "Cleaning Sponges" sold by certain chains. I tried them and can tell they are as good as the ones by Mr Clean!


And here is the result:






The second Speeder was perfect to show you how effectively you can remove paint from your figures/vehicles with disinfectant!

This is how the painted one looked before:



Especially the inside was painted with a lot of paint! I would like to repaint the Speeder completely without loosing detail. So I had to remove all the paint:





You can take a bowl and let your parts sit in disinfectant depending on how much you have. Or you can just take a paper towel/kitchen paper and soak up the desinfectant with it. Leave the wet towel on the painted areas for about half an hour. Then you can easily remove the paint with an old (tooth) brush, your fingernails and/or a tooth pick. On this part I tried all of these options because I could not remove all the paint with just one method.

A friend of mine who is a fan of Warhammer by Games Workshop told me this trick!
So I knew disinfectant can remove acrylic paints by Citadel or Vallejo, but I did not know that it can even remove paints by Revell or humbrol...and a stunning story is that it doesn't remove the original paint that Hasbro uses!





Next I will repaint the second Speeder that was painted before.
You can see the result by following the link to my other topic:

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=10165.15

[Tamer]

Looks good. Off to share the info.

[Darth More]

@ Tamer: Thanks a lot! That was quick!

[FialaFernbrugg]

These are some very helpful tips and tricks.
Thank you for sharing.